2 nights in Brussels
An employee attends a conference in Brussels for 2 nights. The hotel invoices come to €168.00 a night (an example figure). Brussels has no flat overnight rate, so the VA basis applies: the vouched room plus €120.75 for meals.[1]
International Subsistence Rates for Irish Employers: what you can pay tax-free abroad
Send an employee abroad and Revenue lets you pay a flat subsistence amount without tax, up to the civil service foreign rate for the city. Here is how that schedule works, the rates for common destinations in local currency, when the vouched basis applies, how a foreign assignment tapers, and what the rules do and don't say about exchange rates.
- The foreign schedule took effect on 1 April 2017; we found no later circular
- 2017
- The foreign schedule took effect on 1 April 2017; we found no later circular
- Circular 07/2017
- Paris overnight, in euro. London is £199.29
- €316.50
- Paris overnight, in euro. London is £199.29
- Local currency
- Overnight rate by month on a foreign assignment of six months or less
- 100 / 75 / 50%
- Overnight rate by month on a foreign assignment of six months or less
- The taper
- Brussels: vouched room plus this for meals, with no flat overnight rate
- €120.75
- Brussels: vouched room plus this for meals, with no flat overnight rate
- VA only
Checked on 12 October 2026 against Circular 07/2017 (Appendices 1 and 2, as reissued on 24 March 2017), Tax and Duty Manual Parts 05-01-06 and 38-03-33 (both reviewed September 2026) and Revenue's civil service rates page (published 9 June 2026).
The short version
Foreign subsistence in thirty seconds
The civil service foreign rates are in Circular 07/2017, in force from 1 April 2017.[1] Each city has an overnight rate for accommodation and three meals, a 10 hour rate and a 5 hour rate, in the destination's own currency, not euro.[1] You can pay up to those amounts without receipts, or reimburse vouched actual costs.[2] Brussels has no flat overnight rate: it is the vouched room plus €120.75 for meals.[1] On a foreign assignment of six months or less the overnight rate tapers to 100%, 75% and then 50%; over six months the rule changes.[2][3] Neither the circular nor Revenue gives an exchange rate.[1][2] Report each payment under ERR, on or before you pay it.[6]
Local currency
Pounds, dollars, francs and yen as the circular prints them. Never copy a figure across as euro.
Three rates a city
Overnight, 10 hour and 5 hour. The overnight rate covers accommodation and three meals.
Brussels is vouched
The room receipt plus €120.75 a night. No flat overnight rate.
City not listed?
Use the country's 'Elsewhere' row, or vouched cost plus €10 a day where it says so.
Assignments taper
100% in month 1, 75% in months 2 and 3, 50% in months 4 to 6. Different over six months.
No exchange rate given
Pick one published source, apply it the same way every time and write it down.
Try it
What can we pay tax-free for this trip abroad?
Pick the city, then an overnight trip, a foreign assignment or a day trip. You see the most you can pay without receipts in the destination's currency, how a long assignment tapers, and, if you enter the exchange rate you use, the euro value.
What can we pay tax-free for this trip abroad?
The most you can pay without receipts, in the destination's own currency, and how a long assignment tapers.
Try a trip
Overnight €316.50 · 10 hour €105.50 · 5 hour €52.75 · VA amount €158.25[1]
Type of trip
How are you paying the night?
The overnight rate is the normal basis. The VA basis suits free accommodation or a room you book for the traveller.[1]
A foreign assignment?
An assignment means living abroad temporarily to do the job and returning afterwards. It brings in the taper.[2]
nights
Without receipts
In euro
€633.00
- 2 nights × overnight rate€633.00
The overnight rate covers accommodation and three meals, so no receipts are needed to pay up to it. This is treated as a trip, so no taper is applied; the manual's taper is written for foreign assignments.[1][2]
Above this figure: Anything paid above it, without receipts, is taxable pay. Actual vouched costs that were necessarily incurred can be reimbursed in full instead.[2]
The checker covers the cities in the rate table and a few more, and uses one trip or assignment at a time. It cannot tell whether a worker meets the conditions for a foreign assignment, or whether your records would stand up.
How the rates work
How do the foreign subsistence rates work?
One circular sets the rates for every country. Revenue's manual lets employers pay up to the civil service rates without tax.
Overnight rate
A flat amount for an overnight stay abroad, covering accommodation and three meals. Paid without receipts.[1]
10 hour rate
A day rate for a trip with no overnight stay. In the flat-rate cities in this guide it is a third of the overnight rate.[1]
5 hour rate
A smaller day rate for a shorter absence. In the flat-rate cities in this guide it is a sixth of the overnight rate.[1]
Circular 07/2017 is from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It is dated 6 March 2017 and sets the rates for civil servants travelling abroad on official business from 1 April 2017. The appendices were reissued on 24 March 2017 with minor amendments.[1] It dropped the Class B rate and renamed the old conference rate the Vouched Accommodation (VA) rate.[1] We found no later circular revising the foreign rates. Revenue's March 2025 manual update added a link to this circular in the foreign assignment chapter and did not change the rates.[5]
Why it matters to a private employer. Revenue's manual lets you pay a flat rate up to the prevailing civil service rates without specific approval, if you have a satisfactory recording and internal control system. Any other schedule needs Revenue approval.[2] A trip from Ireland to a temporary work location abroad is a business journey.[2][4] The manual points to Circular 07/2017 for the foreign rate in its chapter on foreign assignments.[2] It does not set out a separate foreign table for an ordinary trip, so the circular is the civil service schedule to use. That is our reading, not a quote from Revenue.
The circular has two lists. Appendix 1 is a short list of the most visited countries; Appendix 2 is the long list, with well over 150 countries and territories.[1] The rates in this guide were read from Appendix 2.
Rates are in the destination's currencyLondon is £199.29, not €199.29. New York is US$318.50. Tokyo is JP¥29,672.00. Only euro-area countries are in euro.[1] Copying a pound or dollar figure across as euro is the commonest foreign subsistence error.
What the circular doesn't defineThe columns are headed "10 Hour" and "5 Hour". The circular doesn't say how those bands are measured, or how to treat part days either side of an overnight stay.[1] We read them as 10 hours or more, and 5 hours or more but under 10, as for domestic rates.
The rates
What are the rates for common destinations?
Overnight, 10 hour and 5 hour rates for the cities Irish employers send people to most, in each city's own currency.
Country and cityCurrencyOvernight10 hour5 hour
United Kingdom: LondonGBP199.2966.4333.22
United Kingdom: Northern IrelandGBP118.7039.5719.78
United Kingdom: Elsewhere in BritainGBP139.7146.5723.29
France: ParisEUR316.50105.5052.75
France: LyonEUR201.5067.1733.58
Germany: BerlinEUR239.5079.8339.92
Germany: MunichEUR226.5075.5037.75
Germany: FrankfurtEUR176.5058.8329.42
Netherlands: AmsterdamEUR222.0074.0037.00
Belgium: BrusselsEURVouched room + 120.7580.5040.25
Belgium: Elsewhere in BelgiumEUR193.2064.4032.20
Spain: MadridEUR287.0095.6747.83
Spain: BarcelonaEUR277.5092.5046.25
Italy: Rome and NaplesEUR260.0086.6743.33
Italy: Milan, Florence, Venice, Bologna, Genoa, TurinEUR326.50108.8354.42
Austria: Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Linz, InnsbruckEUR213.0071.0035.50
Switzerland: GenevaCHF363.00121.0060.50
Portugal: LisbonEUR181.0060.3330.17
Luxembourg: LuxembourgEUR364.00121.3360.67
Denmark: CopenhagenDKK2,095.50698.50349.25
Sweden: StockholmSEK2,857.00952.33476.17
Norway: OsloNOK2,040.50680.17340.08
Finland: HelsinkiEUR228.5076.1738.08
United States: New YorkUSD318.50106.1753.08
United States: Washington DCUSD268.5089.5044.75
United States: BostonUSD336.50112.1756.08
United States: ChicagoUSD310.50103.5051.75
United States: San FranciscoUSD290.0096.6748.33
Canada: TorontoCAD332.50110.8355.42
United Arab Emirates: DubaiAED1,564.00521.33260.67
Singapore: SingaporeSGD536.00178.6789.33
China: Hong KongHKD3,193.001,064.33532.17
Japan: TokyoJPY29,672.009,890.674,945.33
India: MumbaiINR19,996.506,665.503,332.75
Australia: SydneyAUD422.00140.6770.33
Source: Circular 07/2017, Appendix 2, in effect from 1 April 2017, checked on 12 October 2026.[1] Amounts are in the currency shown. Brussels has no flat overnight rate: the vouched cost of the room plus the amount shown applies to every overnight visit. Where several cities share a row in the circular they share a rate here.What the table doesn't cover
This is a selection. Some destinations have no flat rate: Zurich and the rest of Switzerland, Sweden outside Stockholm, and Austria outside the listed cities are marked actual vouched costs plus €10 a day. A few cities, such as Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, are a B&B amount in euro plus an amount in local currency. The circular's two lists label Dutch cities outside Amsterdam and The Hague differently: the short list says "Room plus", the long list shows a flat rate.[1] For any of these, read the circular itself.
Check before you rely on a figureThe figures here were read from the circular's long list and checked against its short list where a city appears in both. If a rate matters, open the circular and look the city up.
Vouched accommodation
When do you pay vouched accommodation instead of the overnight rate?
Rarely, except in Brussels. The overnight rate is the normal basis.
01Overnight visits to Brussels
Vouched cost of the room plus €120.75 a night. The circular lists no flat overnight rate for Brussels.
02Accommodation at no cost
Where the room costs the traveller nothing, the VA basis may be justified: no room cost, plus the VA amount for meals.
03You source the accommodation
Where the employer books reasonably priced accommodation through a travel provider.
04Not routine elsewhere
The circular says the VA rate should not be routinely used outside Brussels. The overnight rate is sufficient for accommodation and three meals.
The VA rate is the vouched cost of the accommodation plus the amount in the circular's VA column.[1] For London that amount is £99.65, which is half the overnight rate of £199.29. For Brussels it is €120.75. Those are the cases the circular gives, and it adds that they are examples, so each department decides in its own guidelines when VA may be claimed.[1]
A private employer has no department guidelines, so write your own rule. For example: "We use the VA basis for Brussels, and where we book the room ourselves." Then apply it the same way to everyone.
Receipts instead of the flat rate
Revenue's manual also lets you repay vouched expenses tax-free where the employee necessarily incurred them.[2] So you are never capped at the flat rate if you collect receipts. The circular tells civil servants to keep expenditure to the minimum consistent with the visit; it is a good test of what is necessary.[1]
Cities marked * or #For these the rate is actual vouched costs plus €10 a day for incidentals. The overnight rate means the vouched cost of accommodation and three meals, the 10 hour rate the vouched cost of two meals, and the 5 hour rate the vouched cost of one meal.[1]
Locations not listed
What if the city isn't in the circular?
Three cases, and a different answer for each.
The country has an Elsewhere row
Use it. Germany "Elsewhere" is €176.50 a night, Spain "Elsewhere" €243.95.[1]
The row is marked * or #
Pay the actual vouched cost plus €10 a day. There is no flat rate to pay without receipts.[1]
Not in either list
The circular tells civil servants to confirm the rate with their HR unit before travel.[1] A private employer has no such unit to ask, so see below.
For a location in neither list, the safe route is to reimburse vouched actual costs, which Revenue's manual allows.[2] If you want to pay a flat rate that isn't a civil service rate, that needs Revenue approval, and the manual says to seek guidance from the Revenue office that deals with your business where a situation isn't covered.[2][11]
Don't invent a rate by averaging nearby cities, and don't pay a "base" international rate: the circular has no such figure.
Paying more than the rateAnything you pay without receipts above the civil service rate is taxable pay, and describing pay as tax-free expenses is something Revenue says it will look into for fraud or neglect.[2]
Long stays abroad
How does the taper work on a foreign assignment?
Revenue's manual steps the overnight rate down as an assignment runs on, and changes the rule again after six months.
Six months or less
More than six months
01Irish employer, three months in
The employee has worked for the Irish employer in the State for at least three months before the assignment.
02Working abroad temporarily
They live temporarily outside the State to do the duties of their Irish job, and intend to return to the Irish location.
03Still your employee
They stay an employee of the Irish employer while abroad. People recruited to work abroad, or posted from country to country, are not temporary assignees.
04Within the charge to Irish tax
The manual applies only to the extent the employee remains within the charge to Irish tax.
Those are the manual's definitions of a temporary assignee from the State.[2] It adds that the assignment abroad should not, in general, run longer than the person's employment with the Irish employer before it started, and that any departure from the chapter is looked at on the facts of the case.[2] Revenue's page says the up-to-six-month rates are for a single temporary assignment.[3]
Vouched costs can beat the taper. For an assignment of six months or less, where actual vouched expenses exceed the flat rate allowances, the vouched expenses may be used instead.[2]
Where does a trip become an assignment?Revenue gives no number of nights. The taper is written for someone who "resides temporarily outside of the State" to do their job.[2] Month 1 is paid at 100% either way, so a stay of up to a month costs the same on either basis. The question matters from the second month.
Percentage of what?The manual's table says "% of subsistence rate for relevant location". Revenue's page says "% of normal overnight rate".[2][3] We apply it to the overnight rate. Neither says how the percentage applies to day rates, to a vouched room plus VA, or what counts as a month, so the checker counts 30 nights.
Exchange rates
Which exchange rate do you use to convert the rates?
Neither Revenue nor the circular tells you. That leaves the choice with you, and it needs to be a written one.
01What the circular says
Note 3: enquiries on rates of exchange go to the Central Bank or an associated bank, not to the Department or Revenue.
02What the manual says
Nothing about exchange rates. We found no mention in Part 05-01-06 or in the ERR manual, Part 38-03-33.
03Pick one published source
A bank rate, or the ECB daily reference rate, which it publishes for information only.
04Apply it the same way
For example, the rate on the first day of travel, for every claim. Write the rule in your travel policy.
05Record the rate and date
Put the rate, its source and the date on the claim so the euro figure can be rebuilt.
The circular's Note 3 says to take exchange rate questions to the Central Bank or an associated bank.[1] The manual is silent.[2] The ECB publishes euro reference rates each working day, around 16:00 CET, though it says they are for information only.[10] That makes them one defensible published source, not the required one.
Example, with an assumed rate. The London overnight rate is £199.29. If your chosen source gives €1 = £0.85 on the day, that is £199.29 ÷ 0.85 = €234.46. The rate is an example, not a current rate.
ERR asks for the amount paid and the date paid.[6] The manual doesn't mention currency, so we report the euro amount you actually pay through payroll.
A suggestion, not a Revenue rule"Use the rate on the date of expenditure" is a sensible policy choice. We have not found it in Revenue's guidance, so don't describe it as a Revenue requirement. See our travel expense policy guide for the wording.
Britain and Northern Ireland
Do these rates apply to trips to Northern Ireland and the UK?
Yes. Northern Ireland is outside the State, so the foreign schedule applies, in sterling, and it has its own row.
WhereOvernight10 hour5 hour
London£199.29£66.43£33.22
Elsewhere in Britain£139.71£46.57£23.29
Northern Ireland£118.70£39.57£19.78
Source: Circular 07/2017, Appendix 2, "Britain & Nth Ireland".[1]Revenue counts travel between Ireland and other countries as business travel,[4] and its civil service rates page sets out the domestic euro rates as rates "for assignments within the State" and the taper as rates "for assignments outside the State".[3] So a day in Belfast uses the Northern Ireland row (£39.57 for 10 hours or more), not the domestic €46.17.
The circular sets the rate by country and city, not by distance from the border, and has no distance test of its own.[1] Mileage is a separate question: see the cross-border travel guide.
Northern Ireland is not BritainThe Northern Ireland overnight rate, £118.70, is lower than "Elsewhere" in Britain, £139.71, and far below London.[1]
In figures
Three worked examples
A Brussels stay on the VA basis, a six-month assignment on the taper, and an eight-month assignment over six months.
Worked example
- Vouched room, a night
- €168.00
- VA amount for meals, a night
- €120.75
- 2 nights × €288.75
- €577.50
Pay tax-free€577.50
The room must be vouched; the meals amount needs no receipts. Report it under ERR on or before you pay it: see the reporting section below.Worked example
Six months in Berlin
An Irish employee who has worked for you for over three months is assigned to Berlin for six months, then returns. The Berlin overnight rate is €239.50. The taper applies: 100% in month 1, 75% in months 2 and 3, 50% in months 4 to 6.[2][3]
- Month 1: 30 nights × €239.50
- €7,185.00
- Months 2 to 3: 60 nights × €179.63
- €10,777.80
- Months 4 to 6: 90 nights × €119.75
- €10,777.50
- Without the taper (180 nights)
- €43,110.00
Pay tax-free€28,740.30
That is €14,369.70 less than paying the full rate throughout. A month is counted as 30 nights, which Revenue does not define. If actual vouched costs are higher, the vouched costs can be used instead.[2]Worked example
8 months in Munich
A similar assignment runs for 8 months, which is more than six. The Munich overnight rate is €226.50 and the 10 hour rate €75.50. After month 1 the rule is reasonable accommodation plus 50% of the 10 hour rate. Say the apartment is vouched at €120.00 a night (an example figure).[2][3]
- Month 1: 30 nights × €226.50
- €6,795.00
- Months 2 to 8: 210 nights × €157.75
- €33,127.50
Pay tax-free€39,922.50
After month 1 each night is €120.00 accommodation plus €37.75 for meals (50% of €75.50). The manual puts no figure on reasonable accommodation, so keep the receipts and a note of why the cost was reasonable.Reporting and records
How is foreign subsistence reported under ERR?
Like any other tax-free subsistence: in the vouched or unvouched subcategory, on or before you pay it.
01Decide first
Before you pay, work out whether the conditions for paying without tax are met. Revenue expects that decision in advance.
02Pick the subcategory
Subsistence vouched, or subsistence unvouched. There is no separate foreign category. An advance has its own subcategory.
03Report amount and date
The amount paid and the date it is paid to the employee.
04On or before payment
Report it by the payment date. From 1 January 2027 you can instead report by the 14th of the following month.
05Keep the records
Six years after the end of the tax year, with the destination, rate basis, currency and exchange rate.
Revenue's ERR guidance lists the travel and subsistence subcategories: subsistence vouched, subsistence unvouched, and an advance payment of travel and subsistence among them. There is no foreign subcategory.[6] You report the amount paid and the date paid, on, or before, the payment date.[6][7] A flat rate up to the circular amount is unvouched, and reimbursing receipts is vouched. Revenue's guidance doesn't cover the mixed case of a vouched room plus a flat meals amount, as in Brussels. Pick one subcategory, apply it the same way every time, and ask the Revenue office that deals with you if you are unsure.
From 1 January 2027, Budget 2027 (announced 6 October 2026) gives employers the option to report by the 14th of the following month. It still has to pass in the Finance Bill, and the current rule stays available. See ERR reporting deadlines.
What to keep
Revenue's list for flat-rate payments is the name and address of the employee, the date and reason for the journey, the start, destination and finish, and the basis of the reimbursement, kept for six years after the end of the tax year.[2] For a trip abroad we would add the city, the rate row used, its currency, the exchange rate and its source and date, and the receipts for any vouched part.
Employees with a PAYE Exclusion OrderRevenue says a valid, in date PAYE Exclusion Order relieves the employer of the obligation to report that employee under ERR. It applies to an employee who works solely abroad.[6]
Versus domestic subsistence
How is foreign subsistence different from domestic subsistence?
Different circular, different currency, different long-stay rules, and no distance test.
AbroadIn the State
CurrencyThe destination's own currencyEuro
Day ratesA 10 hour and a 5 hour rate for each city€46.17 for 10 hours or more; €19.25 for 5 to under 10
Long staysAssignments: 100%, 75%, 50% of the overnight rate to six months; a different rule after[2]€184.98 for the next 14 nights, then €102.76 for the next 28; beyond 56 nights, ask Revenue
Vouched accommodationRequired for Brussels; an exception elsewhere[1]Dublin only: vouched room up to €205.53 plus €46.17 for meals
Domestic figures are read from the app's compliance defaults, Circular 04/2025.[9] See the overnight subsistence and 10-hour day rate guides, and the full rates page.Questions
Frequently asked questions
What are the foreign subsistence rates for Irish employers?
They are the civil service rates in Circular 07/2017, in force from 1 April 2017. Each city has an overnight rate for accommodation and three meals, a 10 hour day rate and a 5 hour day rate, in the destination's own currency. For example, the overnight rate is €316.50 in Paris, £199.29 in London, US$318.50 in New York and JP¥29,672.00 in Tokyo. You can pay up to those amounts without receipts, or reimburse vouched actual costs. We checked the circular on 12 October 2026 and found no later circular changing the foreign rates.
Are the foreign subsistence rates in euro?
Only for euro countries. The circular prints each country's rates in its own currency: sterling for the UK, US dollars for the United States, Swiss francs for Switzerland, yen for Japan, and so on. Paying the London overnight rate as €199.29 instead of £199.29 is a common mistake. Keep the currency with every rate.
What is the VA rate and when does it apply?
The Vouched Accommodation (VA) rate is the vouched cost of the room plus the amount in the circular's VA column for meals and incidentals. The circular says it applies to all overnight visits to Brussels (€120.75 plus the room, and no flat overnight rate). It may also be justified where the accommodation costs the traveller nothing or where the employer books reasonably priced accommodation through a travel provider. It should not be used routinely elsewhere. For other cities the overnight rate is meant to cover accommodation and three meals.
What if the city I'm sending someone to isn't listed?
Check the country's 'Elsewhere' row first. Where a row is marked * or #, the rate is the actual vouched cost of accommodation and three meals plus €10 a day for incidentals. For a destination in neither list, the circular tells civil servants to confirm the rate with their HR unit before travel. For a private employer that means paying vouched actual costs, which Revenue's manual allows, or asking the Revenue office that deals with you; a flat rate that is not a civil service rate needs Revenue approval.
How does the foreign assignment taper work?
For a temporary assignee from the State on a foreign assignment of six months or less, Revenue's manual lets you apply the civil service rate for the location at 100% in the first month, 75% in the second and third months, and 50% in the fourth, fifth and sixth months. Revenue's own page applies the percentages to the normal overnight rate and says they can be used for a single temporary assignment. If actual vouched costs are higher than the flat rate, the vouched costs can be used instead. The taper is for assignments, not for ordinary business trips.
What happens on an assignment of more than six months?
The manual allows the overnight rate for the first month, to help the employee find self-catering accommodation. After that it allows the cost of reasonable accommodation plus 50% of the 10 hour day rate for the location. The manual does not set a tax-free limit on the accommodation beyond 'reasonable', so keep the vouched cost and the reason it is reasonable.
Which exchange rate should we use?
Neither the circular nor Revenue's manual says. Note 3 of the circular tells people to ask the Central Bank or an associated bank about exchange rates, not the Department or Revenue. So the choice is yours, and it should be written down. Pick one published source, apply it the same way to every claim (for example, the rate on the first day of travel), and record the rate and the date on the claim. This is our suggestion, not a Revenue rule.
Do these rates apply to Northern Ireland?
Yes, and Northern Ireland has its own row. The circular lists £118.70 overnight, £39.57 for the 10 hour rate and £19.78 for the 5 hour rate, in sterling. That is lower than the 'Elsewhere in Britain' row (£139.71 overnight) and the London row. Revenue treats travel between Ireland and other countries as business travel, and its domestic euro rates are for assignments within the State.
Do we need receipts for foreign subsistence?
Not to pay up to the flat rates: the overnight rate and the day rates are paid without receipts. Where a row says vouched room plus an amount, or where you reimburse actual costs, you keep the receipts. Revenue's manual also lets you reimburse vouched expenses tax-free where they were necessarily incurred, so you are not capped at the flat rate if you collect receipts. Keep the journey records and receipts for six years after the end of the tax year.
Can a private-sector employer use the civil service foreign rates?
Revenue's manual says you can pay a flat rate up to the prevailing civil service rates without specific approval, where a satisfactory recording and internal control system is in operation, and that any other schedule needs Revenue approval. The manual points to Circular 07/2017 for the foreign rates in the chapter on foreign assignments. For an ordinary business trip abroad it does not set out a separate foreign table, so the circular is the civil service schedule to use. That is our reading, not a quote from Revenue.
How is foreign subsistence reported under ERR?
Revenue's ERR guidance has no separate foreign category. Foreign subsistence goes under the same travel and subsistence subcategories as other subsistence, 'subsistence vouched' or 'subsistence unvouched', and an advance payment has its own subcategory. You report the amount paid and the date paid, on or before the payment, after deciding in advance that the conditions for paying without tax are met. From 1 January 2027 employers can instead choose to report by the 14th of the following month (Budget 2027, announced 6 October 2026, still to pass in the Finance Bill).
Sources
Where these figures come from
The circular itself, Revenue's manuals and pages, and the ECB for the exchange-rate reference.
- Circular 07/2017: Subsistence Allowances AbroadDepartment of Public Expenditure and Reform (circulars.gov.ie)Dated 6 March 2017, in effect from 1 April 2017; the appendices were reissued on 24 March 2017. Paragraphs 4, 5 and 9 (the VA rate, when it is used, locations not listed), Appendix 1 (short list), Appendix 2 (long list) and its Notes 1 to 3, including Note 3 on exchange rates.
- Tax and Duty Manual Part 05-01-06: Tax treatment of the reimbursement of expenses of travel and subsistence to office holders and employeesRevenue (last reviewed September 2026)Chapters 1.2 (labelling pay as expenses), 1.3 (records), 2.4.4 (travelling between the State and overseas), 2.5.2 (flat rates up to civil service rates), 3.2 and 3.3 (vouched receipts, round sums) and 4.11 (temporary assignees from the State working abroad: 4.11.1 definitions, 4.11.2 six months or less, 4.11.3 more than six months).
- Travel and subsistence: civil service ratesRevenue (published 9 June 2026)"Rates for assignments outside the State": the 100%, 75% and 50% taper for a single temporary assignment of up to six months, and the rule for assignments of more than six months. Also the current domestic rates.
- Travel and subsistence: business journeysRevenue (published 9 June 2026)Business travel includes travel between Ireland and other countries.
- eBrief No. 058/25: Tax and Duty Manual Part 05-01-06Revenue (11 March 2025)The manual was updated for the 29 January 2025 domestic rates, and a link to Circular 07/2017 was added to the table in chapter 4.11.2. It did not change the foreign rates.
- Tax and Duty Manual Part 38-03-33: Returns by employers in relation to reportable benefits (Enhanced Reporting Requirements)Revenue (reviewed September 2026)Paragraph 5: report on or before the payment, after deciding in advance that the conditions are met. Paragraph 5.3: the travel and subsistence subcategories, including subsistence vouched, subsistence unvouched and advance payments. Question 7 in the questions and answers: an employee with a valid PAYE Exclusion Order who works solely abroad.
- Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR)Revenue (22 January 2026)Employers report on, or before, the payment date, through ROS. Reporting started on 1 January 2024.
- eBrief No. 179/24: Enhanced Reporting RequirementsRevenue (1 July 2024)Revenue would not seek to apply penalties for non-compliance from 1 July to 31 December 2024.
- Circular 04/2025: Domestic Subsistence AllowancesDepartment of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (copy on revenue.ie)The civil service domestic day and overnight rates from 29 January 2025, used here for the comparison.
- Euro foreign exchange reference ratesEuropean Central BankDaily reference rates, usually updated around 16:00 CET on working days. The ECB publishes them "for information purposes only". Shown as one published source you could choose; neither Revenue nor the circular names one.
- Travel and subsistence: reimbursement ratesRevenueEmployers can repay subsistence at civil service rates, at lower rates, or at actual vouched cost; rates above civil service rates need Revenue approval in advance.
Checked against these sources on 12 October 2026. Rates and rules can change with new circulars and Revenue guidance. This is general information, not tax advice; take advice on your own situation.
Keep reading
Related guides
Expense.ie
Keep trips abroad in order
Expense.ie fills in the Circular 07/2017 rate for the country and city, shows it in the destination's currency, has a field for the exchange rate you use, and tags subsistence so it lands in the right ERR subcategory.
Team plan from €29/month. Card required, nothing charged until day 7.